In an effort to be more in line with GDPR, Google says it will move its data service locations to Ireland. The company today announced a change to its terms of service that highlighted the move. In a blog post, Google says users in the European Economic Area and Switzerland, Google Ireland Limited will be the service provider. At the moment, the company’s U.S. Company’s European headquarters in Dublin manage services. “We’re making the data controller change to facilitate engagement with EU data protection authorities via the GDPR’s “One Stop Shop” mechanism, which was created to ensure consistency of regulatory decisions for companies and EU citizens.” Those services include Play, Drive, YouTube, Maps, Gmail, and others. Services will be unaffected, Google adds, and they will still be managed in Dublin. The difference is the data will now be handled by Google’s Europe-based headquarters.
Changing ToS
The change will be effective from January 22, 2019. Google will maintain its efforts to comply with GDPR from the Dublin office. “These changes will be reflected in our general Terms of Service, where the “service provider” that offers these services is currently Google LLC, based in the U.S. We are also making similar changes in the separate terms for Drive, Play, YouTube, and YouTube Paid Service,” wrote Anne Rooney, public policy manager for Google Ireland. “It’s important to note these changes do not in any way alter how our products work or how we collect or process user data within our services.”
